There have I mingled with cheerful friends, and sat alone in solitary hours, gazing on the glowing embers till the season of repose; and there have I and those dear to me offered up our evening sacrifice to "the High and Holy One that inhabiteth eternity," in the prevailing name of the Redeemer.

The fire-side is a chosen spot, a chartered space; endeared by a thousand affectionate recollections. It is so in my case; surely it is the same in yours!

But all earthly things are given to change, and the fire-side of our infancy and youth is rarely that of our manhood and old age. Still, however, it retains an attractive charm; still it has a hold, a strong hold on our affections.

What though we are no longer children; though we no more behold those who watched over us in our by-gone days; though the friends of our youth may be looked for in vain, there are other beings thronging around us, sharing our joys and our sorrows; other interests have grown up in our hearts. The fire-side is yet the home of domestic peace; and if there are in heaven those who draw our thoughts after them, there are also on earth those who call them back again to the world.

Let us make the most of our common mercies,

and if health and strength, if food and fuel, if a home and fire-side be ours, let us see how we can urn them to the best advantage. Some of the pleasantest, some of the happiest hours of my life, have been spent by the fire-side, and you, too, must have had your fire-side enjoyments. If you have sat there with the partner of your joys and sorrows, while your knees have been besieged by a little band of rosy-faced prattlers, whose animated eyes have made your own sparkle, and whose very tormentings have given you pleasure; if you have ever known the warm rush of emotion that is sometimes felt, while looking round exultingly as a husband and a father, I need not tell you how much pleasure a fire-side has to bestow.

Let us make the most of our common mercies. We paint our houses, whitewash our walls, and weed our gardens; why not, then, improve our fire-sides? Why not make them all that they should be, by banishing from them all that is unlovely, and adorning them with all that is amiable and excellent? When a family party, a fire-side circle, are all of one mind; when their love is without dissimulation; when they abhor that which is evil, and cleave to that which is good; when they are kindly affectioned one to another, with brotherly love, in honour preferring one

another; when they look to the same Saviour unreservedly for salvation, and with one heart and voice sing his praise, they come nearer happiness than any thing on this side heaven.

What the future may be we know not; let us be grateful for the present and the past; for he that can look back to the fire-side of his infancy, his youth, and his manhood, without feeling some kindling glow of friendship and affection, must, indeed, have been unhappy.

If in the mirthful sports of your childhood, when the fire has blazed cheerfully, your eye has been the brightest of the assembled throng; and if, in after years, you have found your fire-side a fire-side of happiness, when next you sit there, take up the Book of Life, that your joy may be full. If you are looking aright for a more enduring joy than earth can give, the brightest fireside scene is as nothing compared with what is promised; for "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him," 1 Cor. ii. 9. And if the bitter bread, and water of affliction and sorrow, have been your sustenance, still take up the book of eternal life, and read what is in store for the sorrowful servants of the Lord :-" He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall

hunger no more, neither thirst

any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat: for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes," Rev. vii. 16.

Again I call upon you to improve your common mercies, and among them not to neglect the improvement of your fire-side, that it may become the dwelling-place of a grateful heart, the home of hospitality, the shrine of friendship, the sanctuary of affection, and the temple of praise.

ON INFIDELS.

IN moving among mankind, I have now and then met with infidels, who have not only declared their disbelief of the Bible, but endeavoured, also, to destroy the faith of others in that blessed book. The way in which they have always begun their attack, is to higgle and wriggle about some disputed point of little importance, with as much confidence as if they were on the very point of overturning the whole truth of Scripture by their silly prattle. Just as soon would a poor blind mole tear up from the ground an oak of a hundred years' growth, by burrowing under one of the least of its roots.

If ever you fall in with any of these unhappy beings, do not be drawn in to cavil with them about trifles, but boldly declare your opinion, leaving them to wrangle, if they like, by themselves.

Tell them that if there be anything good, and pure, and holy, and heavenly in the world, the Bible exhorts us to practise it; and if there be anything that is evil and base, and vile in the